Author: Dr Pankaj Kumar

I’m Dr Pankaj kumar, I entered medical school in 1984. postgraduate Int med 1994 and diploma Heath Management. presently a critical care specialist

Happy doctors day:  merely a hollow slogan?


On 1st of July, doctors are usually greeted from multiple quarters. Newspapers, media and some prominent people  congratulate doctors in their speeches or on their social media pages. However, what doctors need are not just verbal wishes but reinforcement of public’s belief in them . It is this renewal of faith in their saviour which will help  doctors in discharging their duties smoothly and in alleviating their problems.

National Doctor’s Day: India, USA

Despite the paucity of the highly trained medical professionals, the identity of medical professionals as a community in society is not getting its due right  because of  misplaced priorities of  certain people. The society tries to impose a stereotype role on them in an effort to control them fully. And as a result of these various controls, regulations and public pressure, doctors experience unrealistic performance pressure on professional front.

     Doctor is the pivot  point between patients, medical industry, government and insurance sector. Huge number of patients, expensive medicines, poor medical infrastructure has produced tremendous resentment against medical system amongst public. But the brunt of this entire angst has to be borne by the doctor or medical professionals alone. Often they are blamed for circumstances beyond their control and punished for system failure. Fear of public wrath and lawsuits is smothering the medical profession.  And increasingly there is a feeling amongst medical professionals that they are getting a raw deal despite doing their very best.

     In such a situation, there should be some introspection by all stakeholders every year, on doctor’s day. The doctor’s day should be more than just greetings and wishes for doctors. Some real resolutions need to be  taken so that their working atmosphere and eventually delivery of medical care is improved and this ultimately will benefit patients only.  I can think of some much needed changes-

1.       Government should take some concrete decision to improve medical  infrastructure and manpower. A better planning needs to be done to spend more for health of people, availability of resources and for improving the working conditions for doctors. Government should ensure that doctors are better protected.

2.       Medical industry should collectively think of protecting doctors or there should be provision for some financialresponsibility of medical lawsuits of all doctors.  Pharmacy industry, medical device industry, insurance industry  and others earn huge profits because doctors need to use their products. Although medical industry makes huge profits still they remain behind the scene.

3.       Police should provide  assured protection to  doctors better against physical violence.

4.       Medical education institutes should resolve to promote the education of best doctors and not indulge in profiteering in education of doctors.

5.       Courts should take an initiative to protect doctors against frivolous lawsuits ( which are often done to prevent paying their bills), revengeful attitude of patients  and harassment?

6.       On doctor’s day, public should resolve that they will not unnecessarily fight or abuse the doctor.

7.       And last but most important is that all medical practioners , be it allopathic, ayurvedic, unani, homoeopathic or others who play a role in maintaining health of patients, affirm that they will do everything to protect dignity and integrity of this profession.

If the above are not practised and followed, then mere sloganeering on doctor’s day  makes no sense . The  effort to improve training and working condition of doctors has to come from the bottom of the heart of all those involve, both giver and taker.  Mere tokenism on a day in a year is of no real purpose. If the present scenario continues, soon a common man will have problem in accessing good medical care which is currently available at nominal cost . One needs to ponder seriously, if we do not save doctors, who will save us? 

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Death declaration by doctor: complex communication skill. “No negligence in alive baby declared dead: hospital “


Source: Death declaration by doctor: complex communication skill. “No negligence in alive baby declared dead: hospital “

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Death declaration by doctor: complex communication skill. “No negligence in alive baby declared dead: hospital “

The death pronouncement is one of the most sensitive and complex part of communication in

The death pronouncement is one of the most sensitive and complex part of communication in and out of hospital, intensive care. It comprises more than the actual declaration of death. It may be a relatively straight forward when the death is expected and the family is mentally prepared and accepting the outcome. However, when the doctor is interacting with a grief-stricken family, dealing with the death of a child, or coming to terms with the death of a personal patient, a death pronouncement becomes complex. Problem is compounded often in presence of violent relatives, non acceptance of death, medico legal cases and   especially in cases of unnatural causes for the death. Relatives often refuse to accept death and within no time mobs swell in number, threatening of physical and verbal assaults and revenge against the doctor in various forms. Although there can be specific protocols and hospital policies, it will still depend upon the timely thoughts and skills of the doctor, how to handle the situation. Doctors should be better trained for handling of death as it can put them in risky situation, because of following reasons.

  1. Death itself is a complex issue. Even today modern science has not reached scientifically at the bottom of life and death.
  2. Communication of death is complex. It varies with each patient, type of relatives, place, country and every situation in same hospital is different.
  3. Declaration of death is a legal matter. How a doctor verifies death, communicates and documents death, it can create legal and other problems for doctor.

Any problem related to declaration of death is immediately picked by media and the initial reaction is to blame the doctors. The doctors in such cases are projected as incompetent and callous, and that makes a media news. Invariably one stray incidence is used as to project whole medical community in negative manner. Later inquiries and further inquiring continue, and even later truth emerges, that is not enough to bring back the lost prestige for medical profession.

Take for example the latest news of “ Alive Baby declared dead.”

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/alive-newborn-declared-dead/articleshow/59208765.cms

Later after two days, news was “ hospital enquiry claims No negligence in alive baby declared dead”

link   http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-no-medical-negligence-in-case-where-newborn-was-declared-dead-2479826

Above news just conveys the complexity of situation, doctors often face. My aim here is to convey  that communication of death is a very complex subject. Ironically no structured training of emotional, communicative and legal issues is imparted to medical students. But they are supposed to face the situation everyday, when they function as doctors.

 

Most legal determinations of death are certified by medical professionals who pronounce death when specific criteria are met. Two categories of legal death are death determined by irreversible cessation of heartbeat and breathing (cardiopulmonary death), and death determined by irreversible cessation of functions of the brain (brain death).

Especially new doctors need to realize that the structure of modern society is to make life and death, medical and then legal matters, and to subject the most basic elements of our existence to professional authority. The birth certificate and the death certificate are signed by doctors, and then registered by the civil authorities.  Because of all  these sensitive issues, emotional aspects and legal dimensions of death being  huge, so need more attention. .

In remote areas doctors are totally alone and helpless, so security issues will remain. There is no solution in sight for these problems. Already I have written about a “real story of female doctor assault”.

Problem is that doctors during training days or residency are not trained in such kind of communication. Although while doing their duties they observe seniors and learn how they are communicating. But still when actual situations arise, which can be diverse, complex and challenging, and everyday getting more demanding. In view of current scenario against doctors, they need better training on these issues. Basic question is, if doctor needs help, where can he turn to for help or information. The resources, other staff and the setup is not of much help in difficult scenarios.  It is not uncommon that doctors are left to themselves, if a difficult situation arises. Medical education and Hospital systems need to be better equipped to provide more support to doctors in present era. For doctors, if they make a mistake, there is no one to support them or save them from verbal, physical assaults, law and medico legal cases.

Harassment is tremendous. Therefore   doctors, be careful – save the patient, but save yourself also.

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Ancient Medicine during Renaissance to Early Modern period 16th-18th century


 

The Renaissance brought an intense focus on scholarship to Christian Europe. A major effort to translate the Arabic and Greek scientific works into Latin emerged. Europeans gradually became experts not only the ancient writings of the Romans and Greeks, but in the contemporary writings of Islamic scientists. During the later centuries of the Renaissance came an increase in experimental investigation, particularly in the field of dissection and body examination, thus advancing our knowledge of human anatomy.

 

The development of modern neurology began in the 16th century with Vesalius, who described the anatomy of the brain and other organs. He had little knowledge of the brain’s function, thinking that it resided mainly in the ventricles. Over his lifetime he corrected over 200 of Galen’s mistakes. Understanding of medical sciences and diagnosis improved, but with little direct benefit to health care. Few effective drugs existed, beyond opium and quinine. Folklore cures and potentially poisonous metal-based compounds were popular treatments. Independently from Ibn al-Nafis, Michael Servetus rediscovered the Pulmonary circulation. But this discovery did not reach the public because it was written down for the first time in the “Manuscript of Paris” in 1546, and later published in the theological work which he paid with his life in 1553. Later this was perfected by Renaldus Columbus and Andrea Cesalpino.  Later William Harvey correctly described the circulatory system. The most useful tomes in medicine used both by students and expert physicians were De Materia  Medica and Pharmacopoea

Paracelsus

Paracelsus (1493–1541), was an erratic and abusive innovator who rejected Galen and bookish knowledge, calling for experimental research, with heavy doses of mysticism, alchemy and magic mixed in. He rejected sacred magic (miracles) under Church auspices and looked for cures in nature.  He preached but he also pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine. His hermetical views were that sickness and health in the body relied on the harmony of man (microcosm) and Nature (macrocorm). He took an approach different from those before him, using this analogy not in the manner of soul-purification but in the manner that humans must have certain balances of minerals in their bodies, and that certain illnesses of the body had chemical remedies that could cure them..  Most of his influence came after his death. Paracelsus is a highly controversial figure in the history of medicine, with most experts hailing him as a Father of Modern Medicine for shaking off religious orthodoxy and inspiring many researchers; others say he was a mystic more than a scientist and downplay his importance.

Padua and Bologna

University training of physicians began in the 13th century.

The University of Padua was founded about 1220 by walkouts from the  University of Bologna, and began teaching medicine in 1222. It played a leading role in the identification and treatment of diseases and ailments, specializing in autopsies and the inner workings of the body. Starting in 1595, Padua’s famous anatomical theatre drew artists and scientists studying the human body during public dissections. The intensive study of Galen led to critiques of Galen modeled on his own writing, as in the first book of Vesalius’s De Humani  Corporis Fabrica. Andreas Vesalius held the chair of Surgery and Anatomy  and in 1543 published his anatomical discoveries in  De Humani  Corporis Fabrica. He portrayed the human body as an interdependent system of organ groupings. The book triggered great public interest in dissections and caused many other European cities to establish anatomical theatres.

At the University of Bologna, the training of physicians began in 1219. The Italian city attracted students from across Europe. Taddeo Alderotti built a tradition of medical education that established the characteristic features of Italian learned medicine and was copied by medical schools elsewhere. Turisanus (d. 1320) was his student.  The curriculum was revised and strengthened in 1560–1590.  A representative professor was Julius Caesar Aranzi (Arantius) (1530–89). He became Professor of Anatomy and Surgery at the University of Bologna in 1556, where he established anatomy as a major branch of medicine for the first time. Aranzi combined anatomy with a description of pathological processes, based largely on his own research, Galen, and the work of his contemporary Italians. Aranzi discovered the ‘Nodules of Aranzio’ in the semilunar valves of the heart and wrote the first description of the superior levator palpebral and the coracobrachialis muscles. His books (in Latin) covered surgical techniques for many conditions, including hydrocephalous, nasal polyp, goiter and tumours to phimosis, ascitis, haemorrhoids, anal abscess and fistulae.

 

Link    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_medicine

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Ancient medicine: The Middle Ages AD 400 to 1400:Europe and Islamic medicine:


Ancient medicine: medicine in medieval Islamic World

The  Islamic civilization rose to primacy in medical science as its physicians contributed significantly to the field of medicine, including  anatomy, ophthalmology, pharmacology, pharmacy, physiology,  surgery  and the pharmaceutical sciences. The Arabs were influenced by ancient Indian, Greek, Roman and Byzantine medical practices, and developed these further. Galen and  Hippocrates were pre-eminent authorities. The translation of 129 of Galen’s works into Arabic by the Nestorian Christian Hunayn ibn Ishaq and his assistants, and in particular Galen’s insistence on a rational systematic approach to medicine, set the template for Islamic medicine, which rapidly spread throughout the arab Empire.

Ancient medicine: medieval medicine of Europe

After A.D. 400, the study and practice of medicine in the Western Roman Empire went into deep decline. Medical services were provided, especially for the poor, in the thousands of monastic hospitals that sprang up across Europe, but the care was rudimentary and mainly palliative.

 Most of the writings of Galen and Hippocrates were lost to the West, with the summaries and compendia of St. Isidore of Seville being the primary channel for transmitting Greek medical ideas.  The Carolingian renaissance brought increased contact with Byzantium and a greater awareness of ancient medicine, but only with the twelfth century renaissance and the new translations coming from Muslim and Jewish sources in Spain, and the fifteenth century flood of resources after the fall of Constantinople did the West fully recover its acquaintance with classical antiquity.

Wallis identifies a prestige hierarchy with university educated physicians on top, followed by learned surgeons; craft-trained surgeons; barber surgeons; itinerant specialists such as dentist and oculists; empirics; and midwives.

Schools

The first medical schools were opened in the 9th century, most notably the Schola  Medica at Salerno in southern Italy. The cosmopolitan influences from Greek, Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew sources gave it an international reputation as the Hippocratic City. Students from wealthy families came for three years of preliminary studies and five of medical studies. By the thirteenth century the medical school at Montpellier began to eclipse the Salernitan school. In the 12th century universities were founded in Italy, France and England which soon developed schools of medicine. The University of Montpellier in France and Italy’s University of Padua and University of Bologna were leading schools. Nearly all the learning was from lectures and readings in Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna and Aristotle. There was little clinical work or dissection.

Humours

The underlying principle of most medieval medicine was Galen’s theory of  humours. This was derived from the ancient medical works, and dominated all western medicine until the 19th century. The theory stated that within every individual there were four humours, or principal fluids – black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood, these were produced by various organs in the body, and they had to be in balance for a person to remain healthy. Too much phlegm in the body, for example, caused lung problems; and the body tried to cough up the phlegm to restore a balance. The balance of humours in humans could be achieved by diet, medicines, and by blood  letting, using leeches. The four humours were also associated with the four seasons, black bile-autumn, yellow bile-summer, phlegm-winter and blood-spring.

Healing included both physical and spiritual therapeutics, such as the right herbs, a suitable diet, clean bedding, and the sense that care was always at hand. Other procedures used to help patients included the Mass, prayers, relics of saints, and music used to calm a troubled mind or quickened pulse.

 

·        Permanent link: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_medicine&oldid=783167827

            Link    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_medicine

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Ancient Medicine: Greece and Roman Empire


Around 800 BCE   Homer in The Iliad gives descriptions of wound treatment by the two sons of Asklepios, the admirable physicians Podaleirius and Machaon and one acting doctor, Patroclus. Because Machaon is wounded and Podaleirius is in combat Eurypylus asks Patroclus to cut out this arrow from my thigh, wash off the blood with warm water and spread soothing ointment on the wound. Asklepios like Imhotep becomes god of healing over time.

Temples dedicated to the healer-god Asclepius, known as  Asclepieia, functioned as centers of medical advice, prognosis, and healing.  At these shrines, patients would enter a dream-like state of induced sleep known as enkoimesis .  Asclepeia provided carefully controlled spaces conducive to healing and fulfilled several of the requirements of institutions created for healing.. Some of the surgical cures listed, such as the opening of an abdominal abscess or the removal of traumatic foreign material, are realistic enough to have taken place, but with the patient in a state of enkoimesis induced with the help of soporific substances such as opium. Alcmaeon of Croton wrote on medicine between 500 and 450 BCE. He argued that channels linked the sensory organs to the brain, and it is possible that he discovered one type of channel, the optic nerves, by dissection.

Hippocrates

A towering figure in the history of medicine was the physician Hippocrates of Kos (c. 460 – c. 370 BCE), considered the father of Western medicine.  The Hippocratic Corpus  is a collection of around seventy early medical works from ancient Greece strongly associated with Hippocrates and his students. Most famously, Hippocrates invented the Hippocratic Oath for physicians, which is still relevant and in use today.

Hippocrates and his followers were first to describe many diseases and medical conditions. He is given credit for the first description of clubbing of the fingers, an important diagnostic sign in chronic suppurative lung disease, lung cancer and cyanotic heart disease. For this reason, clubbed fingers are sometimes referred to as “Hippocratic fingers”. Hippocrates was also the first physician to describe Hippocratic face in Prognosis.

Hippocrates began to categorize illnesses as acute, chronic, endemic and epidemic, and use terms such as, “exacerbation, relapse, resolution, crisis, paroxysm, peak, and  convalescence.

Another of Hippocrates’s major contributions may be found in his descriptions of the symptomatology, physical findings, surgical treatment and prognosis of  thoracic empyema. Hippocrates was the first documented person to practice cardiothoracic surgery, and his findings are still valid.

Some of the techniques and theories developed by Hippocrates are now put into practice by the fields of Environmental and Integrative Medicine. These include recognizing the importance of taking a complete history which includes environmental exposures as well as foods eaten by the patient which might play a role in his or her illness.

Herophilus and Erasistratus

Two great Alexandrians laid the foundations for the scientific study of anatomy and physiology, Herophilus of Chalcedon and Erasistratus of Ceos.  Other Alexandrian surgeons gave us ligature (hemostasis), lithotomy, hernia operations, ophthalmic surgery,plastic surgery,  methods of reduction of dislocations and fractures, tracheostomy.

Herophilus of Chalcedon, working at the medical school of Alexandrians placed intelligence in the brain, and connected the nervous system to motion and sensation. Herophilus also distinguished between  veins and arteries, noting that the latter pulse while the former do not. He and his contemporary,  Erasistratus of Chios, researched the role of veins and  nerves, mapping their courses across the body. Erasistratus connected the increased complexity of the surface of the human brain compared to other animals to its superior intelligence. In . Erasistratus ‘ physiology, air enters the body, is then drawn by the lungs into the heart, where it is transformed into vital spirit, and is then pumped by the arteries throughout the body

Galen

The Greek  Galen (129–c. 216 CE) was one of the greatest physicians of the ancient world, studying and traveling widely in ancient Rome. He dissected animals to learn about the body, and performed many audacious operations—including brain and eye surgeries— that were not tried again for almost two millennia. In Ars medica (“Arts of Medicine”), he explained mental properties in terms of specific mixtures of the bodily parts.

Galen’s medical works were regarded as authoritative until well into the Middle Ages. Galen left a physiological model of the human body that became the mainstay of the medieval physician’s university anatomy curriculum, but it suffered greatly from stasis and intellectual stagnation because some of Galen’s ideas were incorrect; he did not dissect a human body nor did the medieval lecturers.

The Renaissance rediscovered Galen. In 1523 Galen’s On the Natural Faculties was published in London. In the 1530s Belgian anatomist and physician  Andreas Vesalius  launched a project to translate many of Galen’s Greek texts into Latin. Vesalius’s most famous work,  De humani  corporis fabrica was greatly influenced by Galenic writing and form.

Ancient Roman  Medicine contributions

The Romans invented numerous  surgical instruments, including the first instruments unique to women, as well as the surgical uses of forceps, scalpels, cautery, cross bladed scissors, the surgical needle, and speculas.  Romans also performed cataract surgery.

The Roman army physician Dioscorides (c. 40–90 AD), was a Greek botanist and pharmacologist. He wrote the encyclopedia  De Materia Medica  describing over 600 herbal cures, forming an influential pharmacopoeia which was used extensively for the following 1,500 years.

 

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Ancient traditional Chinese medicine


Assorted  plant and animal parts used in traditional Chinese medicines: dried Lingzhi, ginseng, Luo Han Guo, turtle shell underbelly, and dried curled snakes.

China also developed a large body of traditional medicine. Much of the philosophy of  traditional Chinese medicine derived from empirical observations of disease and illness.  and reflects the classical Chinese belief that individual human experiences express causative principles effective in the environment at all scales. These causative principles, whether material, essential, or mystical, correlate as the expression of the natural order of the universe.

The foundational text of Chinese medicine is the Huangdi neijing , written 5th century to 3rd century BCE.  Near the end of the 2nd century AD, during the Han dynasty, Zhang Zhongjing, wrote a  Treatise on cold damage, which contains the earliest known reference to the Neijing Suwen. The Jin Dynasty practitioner and advocate of acupuncture and moxibustion, Huangfu Mi (215-282), also quotes the Yellow Emperor in his Jiayi jing, c. 265. During the Tang dynasty, the Suwen was expanded and revised, and is now the best extant representation of the foundational roots of traditional Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine that is based on the use of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage and other forms of therapy has been practiced in China for thousands of years.

In the 18th century, during the Qing dynasty, there was a proliferation of popular books on traditional medicine. Jesuit missionaries introduced Western science and medicine to the royal court, the Chinese physicians ignored them.

Finally in the 19th century, Western medicine was introduced at the local level by Christian medical missionaries from the London Missionary Society (Britain), the Methodist Church (Britain)

Because of the social custom that men and women should not be near to one another, the women of China were reluctant to be treated by male doctors. The missionaries sent women doctors such as Dr.  Mary Hannah Fulton (1854–1927). Supported by the Foreign Missions Board of the Presbyterian Church (USA) she in 1902 founded the first medical college for women in China, the Hackett Medical College for Women, in Guangzhou.

 

Link    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_medicine

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Artemis doctors, CEO booked for negligence: how to save medical lawsuit in case of post operative complications?


Doctors save the patient, but save yourself also.

News of this kind brings tsunami of fear in minds of doctors all over. Not only doctors, but patients also fear that something like this should not happen to them. In general, it will also create a negative impact on trust of patients, because it reflects that harm is a result of blunder done by doctors.

Artemis Hospital Gurgaon, its CEO, medical director, medical superintendent, and three other doctors of the hospital were booked on  Sunday, based on the complaint of the husband of a patient who died in the hospital in August last year after undergoing treatment in it for two months. (link)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/artemis-docs-ceo-booked-for-negligence/articleshow/59008481.cms

Reality and impact of this scenario may be a bit different from what is usually conveyed and is suffocating medical profession as a whole, all over the world, in some form or the other. Loss to the patient is immense and with sympathy wave against the doctor, everybody will cry for harshest punishment for the doctors. For a human error (which is called negligence), an unintentional harm and failure to anticipate a difficult situation has landed doctors in a soup. The   situations, which are detected by retrospective analysis along  with wisdom of hindsight are challenging and are real trouble. Real time diagnosis  may not always be possible to anticipate and often difficult.

As a doctor, I am forced to ponder whether by punishing the doctors in harshest way for unintentional errors, especially for one incident is the solution to the problem.

  • Can treatment and surgeries be made complication free anywhere? Unless everything is done by a Robot and computers.
  • If consequences of one mistake are such horrifying, will doctors be able to do work, especially in difficult situations free of fear? Or really should they opt for being in such situations?
  • If lots of doctors do not want difficult situations, what will happen to patients?

Difficult scenario for doctors, as even simple surgeries can lead to big complications in certain situations.  Not frequently, situations are unpredictable. So, what should doctors do to avoid to be in such difficult scenario?

How to survive medical lawsuit in post operative complications: Reality is that complications are part and parcel of treatment and surgeries. There will always an element of unintentional harm, whatsoever treatment is being done.No doctor can guess, which patient is going to have complications and give saviour the lifetime pain and shame. It is like a bad lottery. Only improvement can be made is to decrease the number of complications and timely recognition.  How to avoid such problems?

  1. Just be extra careful, extra conscious. Always have in mind that something can happen. It may lead to defensive practice, but that may be the need of the hour.
  2. Due to irony of present era, the preparation of saving yourself, the doctor has to start from the time the preparation of surgery starts. Most important part is consent. Doctor cannot predict, which patient will have what kind of complications. Detailed consent with detailed list of complications have to be mentioned and told to patient and relatives and duly signed with witness. Complications, although rare must be mentioned.
  3. Separate consent for anaesthesia to be obtained along with complications.
  4. Must check for coagulation profile and presence of infection in body.
  5. Risk to be assessed besides actual surgery, for other factors.
  6. Simple surgeries become high risk because of malnutrition, infections, low albumin levels and presence of other medical illness like diabetes, cancer, cardiac ailments. In presence of other factors, high risk consent to be taken.
  7. Never ever risk is to be understated, for the thought that patient will not agree, in case he is told about all the possible complications and risks.
  8. Careful surgery, with high index of suspicion for possibility of complications is required. Never be overconfident. Complication can happen in hands of most experienced people also.
  9. Post operatively : maintain a good record of vitals and pain. If patient is having problem, go to every detailed investigations to rule out your worst fears. Investigations will cost some money and people may accuse you temporarily of getting extra investigations. But it is better not to be accused later for criminal charges and losing all your peace of mind and reputation.
  10. Never discharge a patient, while problems are unresolved. May get a CT scan done and let people accuse you again for getting extra investigation . Time is such that doctors will be blamed and accused for something or the other by retrospective analysis. Let us take a smaller accusation. Later there no body will be forgiving.
  11. If you are not convinced or patient is unable to understand the risk, opt out of surgery. Doing few less procedures will not harm you.
  12. Upgrade quality assurance program of hospital and your department. With aim to minimize complications and early detection.
  13. Periodic audit of medical records.
  14. Medical Indemnity insurance: importance of indemnity insurance is immense these days. Be careful of not disclosing the medical indemnity insurance coverage, because litigant lawyer or patient may exploit it for litigation purposes.

 

Not infrequently, whole scenario becomes a story of revenge against the doctor, even for routine complications and naturally poor prognosis of disease. Therefore, Doctors – save the patient, but save yourself also.

 

 

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Ancient Indian medicine


Ancient Indian medicine

The Atharvaveda, a sacred text of Hinduism  dating from the Early Iron age, is one of the first Indian text dealing with medicine. The Atharvaveda also contain prescriptions of herbs for various ailments. The knowledge to use of herbs to treat ailments later formed bases for the large part of Ayurveda.

Ayurveda, means  the complete knowledge for long life is another medical system of India. Its two most famous texts belong to the schools of Charaka and Sushruta. The earliest foundations of Ayurveda were built on a synthesis of traditional herbal practices and  theoretical conceptualizations.  There after new  therapies dating from about 600 BCE onwards, and coming out of the communities of thinkers who included the Buddha and others.

According to the compendium of Charaka and  the Charakasamhita , health and disease are not predetermined and life may be prolonged by human effort. The compendium of Susruta, the Susrutasamhita, defines the purpose of medicine to cure the diseases of the sick, protect the healthy, and to prolong life. Both these ancient compendia include details of the examination, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of numerous ailments. The Susrutasamhita is notable for describing procedures on various forms of  surgery, including  rhinoplasty, the repair of torn ear lobes, perineal lithotomy, cataract surgery, and several other excisions and other surgical procedures. Most remarkable is Sushruta’s penchant for scientific classification: His medical treatise consists of 184 chapters, 1,120 conditions are listed, including injuries and illnesses relating to aging and mental illness. The Sushruta Samhita describe 125 surgical instrument, 300 surgical procedures and classifies human surgery in 8 categories.

The Ayurvedic classics mention eight branches of medicine: kayacikitsa (Internal medicine), salyacikitsa  (surgery including anatomy), salakyacikitsa  (eye, ear, nose, and throat diseases), kaumarabhrtya  (pediatrics), bhutavidya  (spirit medicine), and agada tantra (toxicology), rasayana (science of rejuvenation), and vajikarana (Aphrodisiac). Apart from learning these, the student of Āyurveda was expected to know ten arts that were indispensable in the preparation and application of his medicines: distillation, operative skills, cooking, horticulture, metallurgy, sugar manufacture, pharmacy, analysis and separation of minerals, compounding of metals, and preparation of alkalies. The teaching of various subjects was done during the instruction of relevant clinical subjects. The normal length of the student’s training appears to have been seven years. But the physician was to continue to learn.

As an alternative form of medicine in India, Unani medicine got deep roots and royal patronage during medieval times. It progressed during Indian sultanate and Mughal periods. Unani medicine is  similar to  Ayurveda. Both are based on theory of the presence of the elements (in Unani, they are considered to be fire, water, earth and air) in the human body. According to followers of Unani medicine, these elements are present in different fluids and their balance leads to health and their imbalance leads to illness.

By the 18th century A.D., Sanskrit medical wisdom still dominated. Muslim rulers built large hospitals in 1595 in Hyderabad, and in Delhi in 1719.

 

Link    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_medicine

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